The recent deaths of Davy Jones and Ronnie Montrose got me thinking of 3 snubs that the elitists in the music biz pulled during the "In Memoriam" piece on the Grammy show as well as the snubbing of the rock n' roll hall of fame. The hall of fame has been beaten to death by others so I'm not gonna spend much time on that, however the hall would be wise to hear fans of bands such as Rush, Kiss and many others, especially when they put in others who are nowhere near deserved as those previously mentioned. I really want to focus on how someone could really be this elitist and snub someone even in death.
When the Grammy's aired their "In Memoriam" piece it went on and on and as usual had lots of behind the scenes type people. I kept seeing producers and execs and so on but I saw no Mike Starr (Alice In Chains bassist), no Mikey Welsh (Weezer bassist) and most notably no Jani Lane (Warrant singer). At first I thought the snubs were because these were drug related deaths, but they spent most of the show remembering Whitney Houston who was a well known drug abuser and speculation of her death has been mostly drug related. My belief is that these men were just not considered "important" or "cool enough" for the Grammys.
For me the one that is the most perplexing is Jani Lane. The man wrote all of Warrants hits and sold millions of albums making the music biz tons of money yet when he passes the Grammys act like they have never heard of him and it's bullshit! Maybe Warrant wasn't the Beatles, but they had a very large fan base at one time and Jani was a well known personality, his later years not being that different then Whitney's (Drug/alcohol abuse, reality TV, poor record sales). Why can't they add a simple photo, let alone a song clip? Maybe a song like... I don't know.... "Heaven"? It was just really disrespectful to him and to fans of 80s music basically telling them that their favorite bands and music was not important to the Grammys.
Will Davy Jones (from the Monkees a band that critics hated) or Ronnie Montrose (a guitarist who had a low profile) make the cut? today yes, a year from now? Maybe not. And that is just pathetic.
Jani Lane does confuse me. Bassists are often overlooked, and less popular, but Jani was someone that many people knew of. You didn't need to be a Warrant fan, to know who he was.
ReplyDeleteIt shouldn't come as a surprise though. Just look at the new artists that get record deals, or the Rock and Roll hall of fame's picks. The industry is confused and doesn't know it.
Let me preface all of this by saying I myself am a big Jani Lane fan.
ReplyDeleteBUT
If you think the average person knows/knew who Jani Lane was, you're sadly mistaken. Go ask the next 10 people you see to name a Warrant song for you. My guess is that 5 out of 10 won't know one, the other 5 will say "Cherry Pie". If you ask the same 10 people to name a member of Warrant, they're going to laugh at you.
And as I said, I'm a fan so I find a ton of things wrong with the above situation, but it's reality. I think it's wrong that Warrant's best material (EVERYTHING after the first two albums) is known by next to no one. I think it's awful that people associate such an amazing song writer (Jani) with easily the worst thing he ever wrote (Cherry Pie). I think it's terrible that people just plain don't know who Jani was, but again; thems the facts.
Setting all of that aside, I personally think it's R I D I C U L O U S that he was left out of the memorial. I don't think it has anything at all to do with how he died though. If they were going to discount people from the memorial based on substance abuse every year, they'd have the do away by the segment. I think it was just plain open disrespect, a "you're not good enough for us" move.
As for Davy and Ronnie... if I were to guess, I'd say Davy will definitely get the mention while Montrose will get passed over. Once more, I'm not saying that would be ok, but it's my guess as to what would happen.
-R
I understand your point Russ, but I doubt most people would know 98% of the people in their memoriam. I didn't see it, so I don't know everyone who was shown this year, but my guess is, the only person most people, of recent generations, would recognize, was Whitney Houston.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, anyone who is into music, should be aware of Warrant, and from what I've seen/heard, should have been aware of Jani. I thought that's what the Grammy's were about... music, and the industry. It's not like it was a stupid Nickelodeon People's Choice show.
I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they started showing background dancers who pass away, based on where the industry is these days.
One of the main reasons Jani wouldn't be as quickly recognized by name is because he was part of a band and not really a solo act until he became a reality/bad headline star, I believe most people don't know the people in most bands by name because it takes a small amount of effort and people rarely use any effort these days. And being known for "Cherry Pie" vs. something like "Letter to a Friend" is sad, I (of course) blame the record company more then the public for reasons stated in other articles.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I brought up the drug abuse was because all 3 had that in common yet it didn't stop the Whitney love. It's the same reason I brought up recent sales, Whitney hasn't done anything in about the same time as Jani had done nothing. It was a total disrespect for Jani's style of music. Hair bands don't matter apparently. It will be interesting to see what would happen if a member of Bon Jovi or Motley Crue (2 bands that for the most part survived the 80s) died.
I really think they will brush over Davy's death next year. They may let his pic roll by real quick. I do wonder if he would get a Whitney Houston moment if it had been the night of the awards. At worst he deserves the Clarence Clemons treatment in my opinion, Clarence was the last mentioned and given a little extra time (as the last person usually is).